Watt (Edinburgh International Festival / Gate Theatre Dublin)

“Nothing is more real than nothing”. Alone on a vast, dark and almost empty stage, McGovern removes his overcoat and hat, and puts down a pair of brown suitcases at the feet of a coat stand to create a semblance of Watt. Watt is not there – instead, an eloquent McGovern narrates episodes from Beckett’s enigmatic post-war novel in the third person, revealing the exquisite tone that Beckett’s text acquires when read aloud. At just under an hour, the succinct nature of this piece comes as a surprise to some of the audience – but this is Beckett, where less is more, and the more is filled with a nothingness so absolute that it becomes a gigantic, brooding ‘something’, omnipresent and starkly beautiful.